I worry with RP that I'm writing too much, forcing the story to go the way I imagine it, or that everyone's waiting for me to join in and pull my weight, and that I'm making too godlike a character or that I'm breaking world-lore or that I'm making too mundane a character and everyone's having to invent reasons I haven't been squished or nommed yet.

What was the other ... ? Oh yeah. Dancing. That's something else where I would have joined in but ...

I worry with RP that I'm writing too much, forcing the story to go the way I imagine it, or that everyone's waiting for me to join in and pull my weight, and that I'm making too godlike a character or that I'm breaking world-lore or that I'm making too mundane a character and everyone's having to invent reasons I haven't been squished or nommed yet.

Well, I'd try to write around all that, and really I'm used to orcs and elves that can resurrect by slamming their pretty-pretty staves on the ground, live for thousands of years and fight legions of soldiers without dying. Plus I'd just say that nobody killed you yet for Emotional Reasons: Maybe they're untested on the field of battle and don't want nightmares of murder, maybe they have orders from Suki to spare you or maybe you Escape Just in Time? There are so much ways to write around somebody's character or lore mistakes. Plus we allowed fucking Immortal God Felines. Literal God Mode Cats. Ha-ha. ;P

As well: I agree that if I can't be in the top ninety-nine percent I'm not even playing. I'm looking you right in the eyes Hearthstone.

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

You, sir, name? wrote:I've gotten really into dancing this year. Dancing slowly kills your old social life and replaces it with another social life where everyone is really into dancing. I think this is what joining the brain slug party is like.

The Time Brain Slugs are addition only.No subtraction required.

Of course, there are only so many hours in a day.What kind of Dancing are you talking about?

You can totally learn. I went in at age 30 with zero dancing background (apart from getting drunk and flailing my arms like that David Boreanaz video you linked). The main requirement is a bit of tenacity and not knowing when it's time to give up. There's actually quite a lot of nerds in the dance scene, especially in WCS there's a lot of engineers and IT-people all around. But I guess that makes sense. It's an incredible compliment to working in an office, you get to work different parts of your brain (and your body), and there's gratuitous hugging.

I edit my posts a lot and sometimes the words wrong order words appear in sentences get messed up.

I took two lessons in uh, cosy foxtrot, but had to stop as those muscle memories interfered a little with my swing dancing, which I'm intermediate-ish at. It wasn't really my thing either though, so it doesn't matter.

You, sir, name? wrote:You can totally learn. I went in at age 30 with zero dancing background (apart from getting drunk and flailing my arms like that David Boreanaz video you linked). The main requirement is a bit of tenacity and not knowing when it's time to give up. There's actually quite a lot of nerds in the dance scene, especially in WCS there's a lot of engineers and IT-people all around. But I guess that makes sense. It's an incredible compliment to working in an office, you get to work different parts of your brain (and your body), and there's gratuitous hugging.

This is all very true of ballroom as well. I don't think it's just that it's a complement to the office environment. At least for ballroom, I think that having at least *some* structure to the dance has a strong appeal. That is, I certainly don't need fully choreographed dances, but there is a certain vocabulary to, say, a foxtrot that makes it so I'm not just *completely* winging it. Even when dancing socially.

And yes, I started dancing in my 30s with less experience than you had had. As in, I *literally* hadn't set foot on a dance floor since my sister pulled me off of one at a school dance when I was 8-ish, hissing at me that I was embarrassing her. And now, well:

You, sir, name? wrote:You can totally learn. I went in at age 30 with zero dancing background (apart from getting drunk and flailing my arms like that David Boreanaz video you linked). The main requirement is a bit of tenacity and not knowing when it's time to give up. There's actually quite a lot of nerds in the dance scene, especially in WCS there's a lot of engineers and IT-people all around. But I guess that makes sense. It's an incredible compliment to working in an office, you get to work different parts of your brain (and your body), and there's gratuitous hugging.

This is all very true of ballroom as well. I don't think it's just that it's a complement to the office environment. At least for ballroom, I think that having at least *some* structure to the dance has a strong appeal. That is, I certainly don't need fully choreographed dances, but there is a certain vocabulary to, say, a foxtrot that makes it so I'm not just *completely* winging it. Even when dancing socially.

And yes, I started dancing in my 30s with less experience than you had had. As in, I *literally* hadn't set foot on a dance floor since my sister pulled me off of one at a school dance when I was 8-ish, hissing at me that I was embarrassing her. And now, well:

Spoiler:

I think it's strange, the more I dance, the fewer rules and less structure there seems to be. At least rules inherent to the dance. It seems like it's mostly mechanical and physical boundaries that limit what you can do (at least in non-competitive dancing). It's like everything can be broken down and taken apart into even smaller components, to the point where even a simple step has half a dozen nuances that can be played with. When I started dancing, I mostly stuck around because it was so completely alien to anything I'd done before, and I sort of wanted to see where the rabbit hole went. The sense of weirdness has passed, but the discoveries just keep on coming.

I edit my posts a lot and sometimes the words wrong order words appear in sentences get messed up.

Art in general is like that (and come to think of it, so is science). It's a deep, deep game that can keep you fascinated for a lifetime.

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.- Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (14 Jan 1875-1965)

Yes Yes. And that RP is now over. It didn't have a happy ending. And Suki still hates cats.

Sad fleeting thought: Even li'l child girls wanna police my gender. And I don't wanna talk about that so much... it was just sad because being around kids and being nice to them makes me feel good and she just Had to Go There With Me. And I wanna give her fifty cents for helping me find coffee cups like her father joked ha-ha-ha-ha. :)

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.- Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (14 Jan 1875-1965)

Sending off the USS Fleeting Thoughts: I'm getting better at Hearthstone finally finally! I like Huntress and Rogue decks w/Valeera or Alleria. "Beware the might of the high elves!" Yes, my opponents: Beware the mighty mighty glowing blue-eyed high elves that live forever and ever and look 20 when they're actually thousands of years old. And have tiny-tiny waists and bodies and can somehow still fight w/the best of 'em. Who knew high elves were so energetic and beautiful for their ages? HA-HA-HA-HA-HA. <3

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

There's a slider at character creation that adjusts between skinny and curvy or whatever you call the extremes. In the case of Elves, that's as full a figure as you get. I call it as close to believable as you get.

City of Heroes had a lot more sliders to adjust things in more detail, and where LotRO has Dwarf, Hobbit, Man, Woman or Elf, CoH had male, female or huge.

She looks like a pretty witch to me ha-ha. And yes elves never get very curvy. I'd like to see a chubby elf, like I dunno, whose good with computers or magic computers or communications or something? And the blood elves on my game... the women are so skinny it looks like any gnoll could just walk up and eat them to death.

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

Ginger wrote:I'd like to see a chubby elf, like I dunno, whose good with computers or magic computers or communications or something?

I rarely get to be a player since I'm usually running whatever tabletop game my group is doing, but my last Pathfinder character was a chubby elf. He was a Summoner who abused his magical powers to make other creatures do his chores for him so he could relax. Eventually, his parents booted him out (he was, like 175 years old), and he had no choice but to join an adventuring group.

If you like Call of Cthulhu and modern government conspiracy, check out my Delta Green thread.Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

Ooh Ooh Mr. Yablo. I love, love, three loves, now four loves... that character idea. Like a lot. My only blood elf? She's a skinny girl yet: She makes up for it by having a lot of strange friends, some on the goblins' black markets, some warriors and knights, some warlocks and demoness lovers... some nice goody-goody girly priestesses... as her courts ordered therapists. The Alliance, and King Anduin, don't fully trust her yet... and she's 900 yet looks 29. Because elves in my li'l game don't ages thanks to their mystical, Holy Light infused Sunwell in Silvermoon City or Sunstrider Isles or something? Anyways that's my char Ravasha Witchhawk. Yet... she could get chubby if she ate her own fancy meals she makes for all her partners. <3 ;)

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

Ginger wrote:Yes, Ms. Elf. The Healer requires... moar cakes. Everyone does. You know who was a communications officer for Capt. James Kirk? Uhura. Now THERE'S a woman that can operate communications channels.

I generally liked all the Original Series main characters, but while my Trekkie friends nearly always put Kirk and Spock at the top of their lists, My top 3 were Sulu, Scottie, and Uhura. It's kind of funny because I can definitely relate better to Spock than any of the others.

And here's something you might not hear a lot of Star Trek fans say (much less the conservative, white male ones): George Takei is probably the coolest person to emerge from the entire Original Series.

If you like Call of Cthulhu and modern government conspiracy, check out my Delta Green thread.Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

I just lovely enjoy love a lot... George Takei. He is... an amazing actor, who cares if he's gay, and? My favs were: Uhura, the doctor guy that says 'Damn it Jim I'm a doctor not a (Insert thing here).' Scotty could be funny when you insults his precious USS Enterprise... Capt. Kirk wasn't bad despite his womanizing ways.

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

Not to bounce back and forth between ideas and conversations (even though, I guess, that's kinda what this thread is for), but I was just thinking about dragons. Western-style dragons, specifically, and their breath. The way a dragon's breath is typically portrayed is a lot like a flamethrower, where the fuel is ignited as it comes out, and then it engulfs a target and sort of sticks to them.

That should be terrifying enough, but making things scarier than they need to be is kinda my thing (at least when it comes to fiction). So I was thinking about how to make a dragon's breath scarier.

Instead of a flammable fuel igniting as the dragon breathes, a dragon's breath should be a dense and caustic gas which would expand to fill whatever area is available. Then, the dragon could ignite the gas at will (unless the dragonslayer and friends are silly enough to carry torches).

With a typical dragon, you have a split second to react, and you can see what you're trying to dodge. With a vapor-style dragon, it breathes, then you get the creepy moment of "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God! It's on me!" and then BOOM!

If you like Call of Cthulhu and modern government conspiracy, check out my Delta Green thread.Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

Yablo wrote:Instead of a flammable fuel igniting as the dragon breathes, a dragon's breath should be a dense and caustic gas which would expand to fill whatever area is available. Then, the dragon could ignite the gas at will (unless the dragonslayer and friends are silly enough to carry torches).

With a typical dragon, you have a split second to react, and you can see what you're trying to dodge. With a vapor-style dragon, it breathes, then you get the creepy moment of "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God! It's on me!" and then BOOM!

I love your ideas re: dragons' western styles breathing. A flammable gas that fills the room? And the dragons uses... pyrokinesis or magics or... its willpower or what? To activate.

And black dragons in D&D breathes acids. Red ones breathe fire. There's even like a bronze? One dragons thingies that... is semi-psychic and... tries to read creatures' minds and bribes them with foods rather than fighting them? How odd and strangeness?

D&D Wiki wrote:Bronze dragons dislike killing animals and would rather bribe them (perhaps with food) or force them away magically. They use detect thoughts to learn intelligent creatures’ intentions.

Oh, there are dragons in D&D and other fantasy stuff that breathe poisonous gas, acid, lightning, etc ... but all of those still have the split-second dodge chance, and they avoid the creeping sense that you're covered in something bad that's about to get much worse. My goal with the thought experiment is really to terrify and psychologically torture the target before killing it.

That's not to say that a big lizard spitting acid on you isn't terrifying, of course. Just that the limits of terror might be pushed a little further.

If you like Call of Cthulhu and modern government conspiracy, check out my Delta Green thread.Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

Yes, upping the terror factors by, changing the ways dragons breathes fires is pretty coolness. Pretty good, I'd say, to make it a noxious choking gasses that fills the room and then BOOM we all lit up right meow! Just: How the new style western dragons breathing noxious gasses actually Get those gasses lit up? Willpower, pyrokinesis... bad, bad naughty magical thinking/feels?

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

How 'bout dragons that hot boxes Mary-Jane, or smokes lots of bad smelling, clove cigarettes like a Goth girls' stereotypes? How about a dragon that breathes ocean water? How about dragons that breathes... pretty, pretty, fresh smelling airs that dispels spells like Choking Gas or Confusion Mist or Cloud Kills or whatever? Just some ideas re: new style Western dragons breathing things... other than fiery breaths.

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.- Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (14 Jan 1875-1965)

That beasty is so hipster/hipstress that it hurts owwie. And if the sign says, 'No Smoking,' then... even if you smoking e-cigarettes that give off harmless water vapors you got to go. Smoking e-cigarettes and vaping counts as smoking to the businesses establishments.

Amy Lee wrote:Just what we all need... more lies about a world that never was and never will be.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.- Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (14 Jan 1875-1965)

Hipster dragon's been trying to quit breathing fire ever since he accidentally melted all his vinyl. He's been doing pretty well, though some still comes out his nostrils when he snorts condescendingly.